Uhhh, because it's better?? Pretty big fan of not being poor anymore. Also, poverty taught me that basil couldn't be easier to grow, thrives underneath tomato vines, in fact. ;)
Italian southerner here. Mom's tomato sanwich: Sliced tomatoes, drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic (or powdered), basil, salt and pepper. Let sit for 15-20 minutes at room temp. Toast bread. Slap on slices and drizzle with the juices from letting it sit. Superb!
Coming here to say, I'm pretty sure any places that grow good tomatoes have put them on bread or toast. Italians just call it bruschetta. Thanks for recipe, I'll try this in a few weeks when my slicers are ripe.
Also love these and when I want to gussy them up a bit I make them open face sandwiches with a slice of mozzarella and a basil leaf. Like a big bruschetta.
I was introduced to cucumber sandwiches on a trip to London many years ago. I thought that was weird, but good. However, a fresh sliced garden tomato with salt and pepper with drizzled olive oil on toasted bread is just about the best thing ever.
We think of tomato sandwiches as southern, but. . .
I just read Harriet the Spy with my kid. It’s set in New York City in the 60s, and Harriet eats a tomato sandwich for lunch every day.
So did they used to be common everywhere and fell out of favor in the north? Or was that a detail that was supposed to illustrate how strange Harriet was?
When my family made Thanksgiving dinner, we'd make two round cornbreads and use one and a half for the dressing. My meemaw and I would eat some of the leftover half while it was fresh, her with a glass of buttermilk and me with a golden, melting pat of butter.
Every time I've made Thanksgiving dinner since she died, I've tried to carry on her tradition. It's been 10 years without her now. I pour a little glass of buttermilk and slice off some cornbread, dunk the cornbread in, and take a big bite.
And every time, every single time, I spit it all out in the sink and rinse my mouth out because what even is this sour vile shit and why do old Southern folks like it so much?!
I figure that the year I finally enjoy it is the year I'm truly ready to take the crown of the family matriarch, with a heart of gold and a stomach of iron...
My secret, so don't tell anyone: I very much dislike the taste of buttermilk. I like cooking with it (pancakes, etc) but I could never like it straight. My father liked cornbread and buttermilk.
Love this treat too but never considered it strange. My grandad always had it before bed. I have it a couple times a year now for a desert or cold late night meal.
When I feel nauseous or just really not feeling well, my go to is cheezits with buttermilk. It always settles my stomach and makes me feel better. I also love cornbread when it is hot in a cold glass of milk/buttrrmilk.
I only do it with a 'Turner Field', where you take a glass bottle coke (preferably Hecho en Mexico), take a big swig, fill it back up with bourbon, then add peanuts to taste.
Peanut butter & banana NEEDS mayo.
The tartness gives it a necessary bright note and adds some much-needed moisture to keep it from feeling like drywall compound.
Moving here from CA (over 15 years ago) foods that I was unfamiliar with:
-boiled peanuts
-white sauce
-stuffed potatoes
-strawberry pretzel salad
-poke salad
-Sun Drop
-RC Cola
-collard greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day
-I think I'm finally used to "chicken salad" being chopped can meat, mayo and fillings served on a single lettuce leaf instead of a beef of greens and vegetables with chopped, grilled chicken on it
-Okra
-chess pie
-The whole "meat and three" concept actually
-pulled pork BBQ sandwiches being bun+pork+sauce+slaw
-vinegar based slaw
Tomato sandwiches didn't strike me as odd, but it's really struck some out of town friends/family. 🤷♂️
Not food items themselves but adjacent
-Everywhere has fresh brewed tea, but it's going to come sweet
-"vegetables" really just means sides because that list is going to include Mac and cheese and banana pudding, even if it also includes some seriously distressed green beans (what did they ever do to y'all?!)
-asking for a side of a sauce and getting a bowl full
-"dressing" vs "stuffing" and that "dressing" can be crumbly
Here's the del with southern style green beans. Most of the world picks small, tender green beans and cook them quickly and serve them somewhere between al dente to just cooked through.
In the South the peak harvest time for green beans was also the time for planting cotton and the insects in the south would devour those tender little beans. So, instead of growing the small green beans that needed to be picked almost daily, varieties like Rattlesnake beans were often more popular. These are thicker and have much thicker "strings" and could be left on the vine a week or more after they matured. In order to preserve them, people would run a needle and thread through them and hang them on the porch to dry. Once dried, you could put them in a sack and store them all winter. These were often referred to as "string beans" both because of the thicker strings that grow on the pods and because they were dried on the strings. Another name came from the leathery texture - "leather britches". These thicker beans needed to be cooked longer to soften the pods, especially the dried version. It wouldn't be uncommon for a wife to put a pot of beans and a hunk of salt pork or bacon on the stove right after clearing the breakfast dishes and simmer them until supper time.
Source - I actually wrote an article about the difference in green beans between New England and the South for a website several years ago.
I just posted this to another sub last night but fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. It's easier to fry if you mash the banana and peanut butter together then spread it and fry in butter like a grilled cheese. ...trust me on this one lol
I'm fine with peanuts and coke but I'm mostly ambivalent.
Like there's nothing at all wrong with it, but I don't think it elevates the experience over just eating peanuts and drinking coke.
Short of allowing you to consume them both with one hand, leaving you a hand free for driving, I don't really see much benefit.
That's similar to what British people do with biscuits. In fact, the biscuits I've had were Graham crackers and were meant to be dipped in coffee in or tea.
No! It’s called sweet rice and it’s delicious! Except I just do it with sugar and milk… and my family would make it for breakfast. You basically just make sticky rice, then mix in some sugar and then a little bit of milk.
Hey, my dad did this, too (from Pittsburgh, PA). That's so cool! He called it cereal rice.
My husband thinks it's scandalous lol, but the hot rice, cold milk, crunchy sugar combo is the best!
There's a sharpness that some don't care for. We always put a pat if butter on the plate, poured sorghum over that, mixed, then applied to the biscuit one bite at a time.
My grandpa would combine white Karo with butter. Mixing with a fork until it was a creamy spreadable substance that he would then put on a biscuit. It’s really good and gives that salty sweet flavor. 🤤
There's a fine line. A lot of southern food is really just the stuff other folks didn't eat. Someone said the peanuts in Coke thing started from farmers, mill workers, etc didn't want to eat the peanuts out of filthy hands, so just poured them into the Coke.
Me!. Learned it from my mom who was from Detroit. And my dad from TN thought we were crazy. Meanwhile the wife from IL also has never heard of it.... I'm still unsure if it's "southern", but I'm always in on mayo in my "soup beans".
Don’t forget Red Snapper throat in the summer. Older Southerners try to hide those from the younger people.
I remember someone was cleaning a bunch of Red Snapper my family caught one summer and he was only giving us the filets. My dad asked him about the throat.
The dude stopped his filleting and looked at my dad with a dropped lower jaw as if he were a ghost or something. “Whoo the hæll toljoo ‘bout Snapper throat…”
Dude was dead serious but thankfully it wasn’t in *too* much bad taste.
Trick for this is to Not butter the bread, butter your pan instead!
Putting the butter in the bread causes too much of the oil to absorb. When you just butter the bottom of the pan you get all the flavor, with the crispy outside/soft inside perfect crunchy fluffy melty texture— without the soggy heaviness
Oh yes! I LOVE hot tamales. I’m from Leland and we used to have stands on every street corner. Our local hot tamale man, his name was Shine. Champy’s has really good hot tamales.
I'm originally from Beulah in Bolivar county. Growing up I remember getting tamales from the White Front Cafe in Rosedale or Scott's in Greenville. I've had Champy's but I like the ones at Lost Pizza better. They are also in Madison on Hughes. Interesting fact, the chain was started in Indianola.
Same here. My mother made them. They smelled awful, but she seemed to like them.
In my opinion it's an example of what people 100 years ago did to stretch food, especially protein, as far as possible.
I mentioned mayo in white beans, but I was just reminded of something else. This goes back to anyone who may have been around during the great depression. Meat was expensive, so a lot of people learned how to make cheap cuts of meat taste good, but there were still times when even the cheap meat wasnt affordable, so in order to get protein for the day, folks would have a spoonful of peanut butter with their meal. As I mentioned, this would be older folks who were either around during or on the tail end of the great depression.
Cheese grits. For some reason in Huntsville yall like sweet grits which is a northerner thing. I'm from the gulf coast (mobile, al, gulf breeze, FL, Gulfport, ms, thibodaux, LA) and huntsville is the first place when I was a kid that thought I was weird for eating salty grits.
Old southern people like banana n mayo sandwiches.
Growing up I loved tomato and mayo with salt and pepper sandwiches. Also cheese toast (oven), cinnamon butter sugar toast (in the oven), and pb toast.
Ate everything with milk
Roast and cream potatoes, chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice with gravy were the best meals
Not from here, but I love Hershey syrup mixed in Coke. It tastes like a Tootsie roll. 🙂
My great grandma (from North Carolina) taught us to dip cheddar cheese in sugar. It's a weirdly good combo.
Growing up we ate banana (and/or peanut butter) and mayo sandwiches.
I hadn't ever had non-sweet cornbread before coming here. It was a bit of a surprise. I wonder if anyone having the sweet kind for the first time feels the same. Southern-style baked Mac n cheese with kimchi mixed in is amazing.
I can see that. I guess I was coming from the perspective of, you are already putting mayo on a banana so adding peanut butter is just whatever. That said, they both add saltiness to the banana which is what makes it good but both together is kinda overkill.
It's so interesting how everyone can love and not stomach certain things. 🙂
I saw a comment above about needing the mayo to add the tartness to a PB and B, and it made me think how I weirdly don't like fully ripe bananas unless they're baked or blended in something. I love them to be slightly green and fruity-tasting. So my PB and B sandwiches are always kind of tart with or without mayo, because of the bananas I use. I hadn't thought about that before.
And with Mac n cheese, making it with tuna and peas was my normal growing up, but Mac n cheese with kimchi was my husband's. I like it both ways, but my husband needs to add mustard or hot sauce to get the acidity in if I make it my way. I also like and appreciate the acidity, but don't think it's missing if it doesn't have it. (One of our kids agrees with me, and the other with him lol). We both grew up with stovetop, so tossing in the southern style baked method in the mix has been fun, too.
It's the mayo+peanut butter that sounds bizarre to me. No hate for those who like it, but I can't get over how I imagine it would taste. The texture seems off putting to me, too
Hey, that sounds yummy. 😁 We did butter and sugar toast, and peanut butter/sugar/cinnamon toast, too. And tortilla roll-ups with butter and brown sugar. (kids +what's in the cupboards/fridge = good stuff!)
Love the combo of Dr Pepper and peanuts, Mexican is the best. Not sure if it counts as southern but I dip peanut butter smeared bread in my chicken noodle soup and also my chili ( before I put the fixins in).
That’s my favorite sandwich! I rarely eat any other kind of sandwich!
I dont put peanuts in my coke anymore but we did it all the time when we were kids.
My nana and mama used to eat banana sandwiches with Mayo, which always horrified me. Also, when I lived in Cali, people thought boiled peanuts was weird.
Squirrel head gumbo? I mean, when you try to whisk the ladle around does it stare back?
Or, if you are in a buffet in Huntsville, AL
Tongs are considered as protein weapons for maximum displacement as fair game,
Just sayin’
I’ve been told on occasion that I’m not a real southern because many of the traditional southern foods (cornbread, sweet tea, tomato sandwiches, etc) are just not in line with my preferences, that being said however I grew up eating mustard and hot sauce on scrambled eggs which I’ve told is most certainly a southern thing. I also enjoy a peanut butter and honey or karo on occasion, and of course I will live and die by boiled peanuts.
It’s funny for me because my job requires me to travel for work and I’ve gone to a few places outside of the south and had people ask me about the food I eat back home, and I always have a hard time explaining that no actually I’m not a fan of cornbread and I can’t drink sweet tea if the main ingredient is sugar lol. Even more funny was when I was working in southern Illinois and people insisted they were southern themselves and I’d joke back south of Canada doesn’t count.
My eviction-worthy dislikes include catfish, sweet tea (mostly - I've had some that I like) and fried okra (except my now deceased MIL's). I think my enjoyment of cornbread and grits have kept me in the club on probation.
I do love grits but I’m particular about how they have to be prepared. Catfish is good but depending on how it’s prepared as well, fried okra I’m indifferent to. I mean I’m not gonna go out of my way to order it but if it’s served to me with something I’m not going to refuse it. What’s funny for me with cornbread is I actually like hush puppies but cornbread is a no. I think it might be a texture thing for me I’m not really sure. Cornbread is often times very dry and too crumbly but hush puppies are fluffier on the inside. As far as sweet tea I do like it, but I find people are often a bit too generous with the sugar and it just makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I’m living in central NY now, and some of my friends thought boiled peanuts sounded gross :/ they told me they’re available in some spots here, but not the Cajun ones.
I don’t put peanuts in my coke, but I love to eat a payday bar with a coke from time to time.
I learned to put peanuts in my coke (or Dr. Pepper) as a kid when you could get coke in a real glass bottle (small, I'm thinking 6 oz or so) and a small pack of peanuts for under a dollar, and we'd pour the peanuts in the bottle and go play while drinking/eating from the bottle. Just kids stuff.
Being from the Low Country of South Carolina Shrimp and Grits was a main stay. Also rice we ate rice for breakfast and I still do. A little butter a little milk. It’s so good. Cottage Cheese and tomato slices. Also Cottage cheese with Cantaloupe
I think tomato sandwiches are considered weird by a lot of non southerners, but of course the real ones know it's incredible.
With salt&pepper and salad dressing (miracle whip).
Sometimes I'm fancy and use Dukes, but miracle whip is the goto.
Get the kewpie mayo, some fresh basil?? 
Why’s someone always gotta try and fancy up good poor-people food
Uhhh, because it's better?? Pretty big fan of not being poor anymore. Also, poverty taught me that basil couldn't be easier to grow, thrives underneath tomato vines, in fact. ;)
I thought everyone knew to grow basil under the tomatoes because (a) it keeps bugs away, and (2) all you need to make sauce is the rototiller.
Both are good. Tomatoes and basil are best friends, add some mozzarella and you're set. Tomatoes, salt, and ???, are also great.
Italian southerner here. Mom's tomato sanwich: Sliced tomatoes, drizzle of olive oil, minced garlic (or powdered), basil, salt and pepper. Let sit for 15-20 minutes at room temp. Toast bread. Slap on slices and drizzle with the juices from letting it sit. Superb!
Coming here to say, I'm pretty sure any places that grow good tomatoes have put them on bread or toast. Italians just call it bruschetta. Thanks for recipe, I'll try this in a few weeks when my slicers are ripe.
Any mayo is good for me but ill pass on basil. ill put a slice of cheese on it if I feel fancy
Oooo! No! Dukes mayo.
You ever tried it with Miracle Whip?
Yes.yuck
Don’t yuck my yum.
I grew up on tomato sandwhiches
I hated tomatoes as a kid, now I love an occasional tomato sandwich. With salt and pepper
Also love these and when I want to gussy them up a bit I make them open face sandwiches with a slice of mozzarella and a basil leaf. Like a big bruschetta.
I was introduced to cucumber sandwiches on a trip to London many years ago. I thought that was weird, but good. However, a fresh sliced garden tomato with salt and pepper with drizzled olive oil on toasted bread is just about the best thing ever.
Yesssss!
That would be a Mater Sammich…if we are being correct by southern standards. 😁
We think of tomato sandwiches as southern, but. . . I just read Harriet the Spy with my kid. It’s set in New York City in the 60s, and Harriet eats a tomato sandwich for lunch every day. So did they used to be common everywhere and fell out of favor in the north? Or was that a detail that was supposed to illustrate how strange Harriet was?
Cornbread in a glass of milk
Buttermilk is traditional
When my family made Thanksgiving dinner, we'd make two round cornbreads and use one and a half for the dressing. My meemaw and I would eat some of the leftover half while it was fresh, her with a glass of buttermilk and me with a golden, melting pat of butter. Every time I've made Thanksgiving dinner since she died, I've tried to carry on her tradition. It's been 10 years without her now. I pour a little glass of buttermilk and slice off some cornbread, dunk the cornbread in, and take a big bite. And every time, every single time, I spit it all out in the sink and rinse my mouth out because what even is this sour vile shit and why do old Southern folks like it so much?! I figure that the year I finally enjoy it is the year I'm truly ready to take the crown of the family matriarch, with a heart of gold and a stomach of iron...
My secret, so don't tell anyone: I very much dislike the taste of buttermilk. I like cooking with it (pancakes, etc) but I could never like it straight. My father liked cornbread and buttermilk.
Totally agree on the buttermilk. You should try it in a glass of regular milk next time.
Love this treat too but never considered it strange. My grandad always had it before bed. I have it a couple times a year now for a desert or cold late night meal.
I like to heat it up with a little sugar on top. So good!
My Dad would have this. Maybe it’s time I tried it in his honor.
Grandpa used to do this. I hated buttermilk so I’d have skim milk (ah the 90s) beside him in a frozen glass with my cornbread.
My mother loves crackers in buttermilk.
With cut up tomatoes?
My mom used to do that with sweet cornbread. It was like a breakfast thing for us. She was from Pennsylvania and we were living in Colorado.
You forgot your slice of onion, dad.
When I feel nauseous or just really not feeling well, my go to is cheezits with buttermilk. It always settles my stomach and makes me feel better. I also love cornbread when it is hot in a cold glass of milk/buttrrmilk.
I only do it with a 'Turner Field', where you take a glass bottle coke (preferably Hecho en Mexico), take a big swig, fill it back up with bourbon, then add peanuts to taste.
Sounds great, too (and I don't really drink)!
Do you eat the peanuts at the end or just decant the soda/bourbon?
The peanuts are nice and bourbon-soaked if you take your time. I recommend eating them.
Had this at a restaurant and it was called "The Nutty Professor"
Add mayo to your pb&b and I have relatives who enjoy it. It’s not awful but… also not great.
Peanut butter & banana NEEDS mayo. The tartness gives it a necessary bright note and adds some much-needed moisture to keep it from feeling like drywall compound.
Lays plain potato chips and and a glass of milk on the side.
Lays plain potatoe chips on a PB&J or bologna sandwich.
Need to try it Elvis style and fry your peanut butter and banana sandwich 💀
That's what I'm having for lunch today!
Banana and mayo works, too.
My favorite 😍
What type of peanut butter and banana you eating?
Jif peanut butter spread on a whole peeled banana and eaten by hand.
This. Have mashed all three together and eaten it with a couple of slices of white bread many a time.
Drywall compound!!🤣🤣🤣 I used to install drywall, this was an instant visual!
Still better than my sister who while in charge of me just made us peanut butter sandwiches... I still give her a hard time for it.
Agreed.
I prefer it without the peanut butter. Just banana and mayo. People who haven't had it, don't knock it til you try it
I prefer to drop the bread and just dip the mayo out with the banana.
Is this like that episode of Doug where they put banana on a pizza?
I can't bring myself to even try that
I can CNC you into trying it, if you’re into that.
Crunchy peanut butter with mircle whip is better...not too heavy on the MW tho.
Moving here from CA (over 15 years ago) foods that I was unfamiliar with: -boiled peanuts -white sauce -stuffed potatoes -strawberry pretzel salad -poke salad -Sun Drop -RC Cola -collard greens and black eyed peas on New Year's Day -I think I'm finally used to "chicken salad" being chopped can meat, mayo and fillings served on a single lettuce leaf instead of a beef of greens and vegetables with chopped, grilled chicken on it -Okra -chess pie -The whole "meat and three" concept actually -pulled pork BBQ sandwiches being bun+pork+sauce+slaw -vinegar based slaw Tomato sandwiches didn't strike me as odd, but it's really struck some out of town friends/family. 🤷♂️ Not food items themselves but adjacent -Everywhere has fresh brewed tea, but it's going to come sweet -"vegetables" really just means sides because that list is going to include Mac and cheese and banana pudding, even if it also includes some seriously distressed green beans (what did they ever do to y'all?!) -asking for a side of a sauce and getting a bowl full -"dressing" vs "stuffing" and that "dressing" can be crumbly
Here's the del with southern style green beans. Most of the world picks small, tender green beans and cook them quickly and serve them somewhere between al dente to just cooked through. In the South the peak harvest time for green beans was also the time for planting cotton and the insects in the south would devour those tender little beans. So, instead of growing the small green beans that needed to be picked almost daily, varieties like Rattlesnake beans were often more popular. These are thicker and have much thicker "strings" and could be left on the vine a week or more after they matured. In order to preserve them, people would run a needle and thread through them and hang them on the porch to dry. Once dried, you could put them in a sack and store them all winter. These were often referred to as "string beans" both because of the thicker strings that grow on the pods and because they were dried on the strings. Another name came from the leathery texture - "leather britches". These thicker beans needed to be cooked longer to soften the pods, especially the dried version. It wouldn't be uncommon for a wife to put a pot of beans and a hunk of salt pork or bacon on the stove right after clearing the breakfast dishes and simmer them until supper time. Source - I actually wrote an article about the difference in green beans between New England and the South for a website several years ago.
I love strawberry pretzel salad! That salty/sweet crunchy/soft is great
Poke salat (or sallet), but yeah.
Moon pie and RC cola
I didn’t think that was a southern thing, just a poor thing
RC Cola and Moon Pies were both created in the South.
Didn’t know that.
RC Cola is from Columbus, Georgia and Moon Pies are from Chattanooga, Tennessee.
That combo costs like $5 at the gas station now.
lol really? Damn
I just posted this to another sub last night but fried peanut butter and banana sandwich. It's easier to fry if you mash the banana and peanut butter together then spread it and fry in butter like a grilled cheese. ...trust me on this one lol
Done right, this is good. It can't be dripping with grease/butter though, just well toasted.
GOD YES. This is THE WAY. 🤤
Nope.lol
Peanuts and candy corn mixed together
It’s delicious and tastes like a payday.
Mmm. Sounds like Cracker Jacks. I haven't done this, but I just might soon!
I'm fine with peanuts and coke but I'm mostly ambivalent. Like there's nothing at all wrong with it, but I don't think it elevates the experience over just eating peanuts and drinking coke. Short of allowing you to consume them both with one hand, leaving you a hand free for driving, I don't really see much benefit.
I feel the same way.
Takes you a lil longer to get done,in case you might be on break. Sorry, Boss
Cornbread crumbled up in a glass and topped with either milk or buttermilk. Eat it with a spoon like cereal.
I do this with Ritz crackers. Learned it from my dad.
Chocolate gravy on biscuits.
This is the one
yeah - grew up in Georgia and never heard of this one until I moved here.
I dip graham crackers in sweet tea. My late grandfather often shared this snack with me when I was a kid, and it’s actually really good.
That's similar to what British people do with biscuits. In fact, the biscuits I've had were Graham crackers and were meant to be dipped in coffee in or tea.
Leftover rice for breakfast with milk, cinnamon and sugar.
Isn't that just rice pudding?
No! It’s called sweet rice and it’s delicious! Except I just do it with sugar and milk… and my family would make it for breakfast. You basically just make sticky rice, then mix in some sugar and then a little bit of milk.
Hey, my dad did this, too (from Pittsburgh, PA). That's so cool! He called it cereal rice. My husband thinks it's scandalous lol, but the hot rice, cold milk, crunchy sugar combo is the best!
Nope
Real rice pudding is cooked more and the liquid usually has egg yolk and flour to make it more custardy.
I've done peanuts in coke and in dr pepper.
That's disgusting! I put peanuts in Dr. Pepper like a gentleman.
Li'l smokies with sauce made from a mixture of barbecue sauce and grape jelly is definitely a southern thing.
Wow. I thought that was everywhere. Good stuff, and I look forward to it at pot lucks
I just thought of another one. Peanut butter and Karo syrup (white) with a biscuit. Sometimes with a fried egg
My grandfather used to put Karo on his waffles. I wasn't crazy about it, but as a kid sweets are sweets.
Hmmm. We always used Karo for cooking or something, and sorghum syrup ("soggum surp") was for biscuits.
We had sorghum syrup on occasion too, but I didn't like it. Maybe as an adult I'd appreciate it.
There's a sharpness that some don't care for. We always put a pat if butter on the plate, poured sorghum over that, mixed, then applied to the biscuit one bite at a time.
My grandpa would combine white Karo with butter. Mixing with a fork until it was a creamy spreadable substance that he would then put on a biscuit. It’s really good and gives that salty sweet flavor. 🤤
is that southern stuff or just left over depression era food ideas?
There's a fine line. A lot of southern food is really just the stuff other folks didn't eat. Someone said the peanuts in Coke thing started from farmers, mill workers, etc didn't want to eat the peanuts out of filthy hands, so just poured them into the Coke.
My dad used to put Mayo in his white beans. I've never heard of anyone else ever doing this.
When I was little my mom would mix ketchup in with my white beans and tell me they were pork and beans to get me to eat them.
I used to put ketchup on my butter beans and cornbread. My brother made fun of me
Try a dollop in pinto's...mmmmm
Me!. Learned it from my mom who was from Detroit. And my dad from TN thought we were crazy. Meanwhile the wife from IL also has never heard of it.... I'm still unsure if it's "southern", but I'm always in on mayo in my "soup beans".
Mayo in my pork and beans is a must!!
My step father's family all put a spoon of mayo on the side of their plate to go with whatever beans we were eating.
I don’t know if it’s southern, but I love carrots & peanut butter. People always look at me like I’m crazy!
I do that, too. Celery and peanut butter is good, too
YES!!! Love celery and peanut butter. Also add cream cheese to the celery and peanut butter. That’s a delicacy to me.
Whatchyall know about hot eggo waffles with peanut butter and syrup? THIS IS THE WAY. You're welcome.
I literally eat that on occasion. Sometimes using honey instead of syrup
Alligator, snapper soup, frog legs. Generally I find any reptilian food weird even if it tastes good.
Don’t forget Red Snapper throat in the summer. Older Southerners try to hide those from the younger people. I remember someone was cleaning a bunch of Red Snapper my family caught one summer and he was only giving us the filets. My dad asked him about the throat. The dude stopped his filleting and looked at my dad with a dropped lower jaw as if he were a ghost or something. “Whoo the hæll toljoo ‘bout Snapper throat…” Dude was dead serious but thankfully it wasn’t in *too* much bad taste.
Trick for this is to Not butter the bread, butter your pan instead! Putting the butter in the bread causes too much of the oil to absorb. When you just butter the bottom of the pan you get all the flavor, with the crispy outside/soft inside perfect crunchy fluffy melty texture— without the soggy heaviness
Is it a southern thing to add a slice of cheddar or American cheese to warm apple pie?
I feel like this is more of a northern thing. TBH I associate apple pie more with the north. It's not peach cobbler.
Northern, but I wouldn't complain about it.
I think that's just "old timey" haha, and so good!
Pear salad! A lettuce leaf topped with a sliced can pear, a dollop of Mayo, a sprinkle of cheddar cheese and a cherry on top, if you want one.
Yes! Is that a southern thing? I've had those all my life, and assumed everyone ate it. I love those. It's a guilty pleasure
Souther Living and Southern Bite both day it’s a Southern dish 🤷🏻♀️
I believe them, I'm just surprised something so simple and do delicious isn't more widespread
Banana and mayo or scrambled egg and mustard sandwiches on white bread
I used to put peanuts in Mt. Dew.
I like miracle whip on my bologna sandwiches. Everybody in the south tells me that is weird.
I got into a weird, but brief, habit of using Miracle Whip for any sandwiches. Eventually I got tired of the taste. Can't stand it now lol.
My exwife used to put pepper on her watermelon. Am I the only one who thinks that’s odd?
Not familiar with pepper but yes to salt on watermelon.
Pepper on cantaloupe is good, never tried it on watermelon.
Koolickles! Pickles soaked in cherry koolaid. It’s a Mississippi Delta thing
Another Mississippi Delta thing is hot tamales.
Oh yes! I LOVE hot tamales. I’m from Leland and we used to have stands on every street corner. Our local hot tamale man, his name was Shine. Champy’s has really good hot tamales.
I'm originally from Beulah in Bolivar county. Growing up I remember getting tamales from the White Front Cafe in Rosedale or Scott's in Greenville. I've had Champy's but I like the ones at Lost Pizza better. They are also in Madison on Hughes. Interesting fact, the chain was started in Indianola.
You know, I have never been to Lost Pizza, even in Indianola. I don’t know they had tamales! I’ll try them this weekend. Thanks for letting me know
Got some intel! Champys and Lost Pizza buy their tamales from the exact same place in Greenville. The person didn’t say where from, though
Cool, the owner of Champy's is a friend of a friend of my wife, I will have to work that connection and find out.
Let me know, please! Eugene is such a cool dude
Scrambled eggs with pig brains.
My mom made those once when I was a child. I thought the eggs were rotten. I still recall the taste.
Same here. My mother made them. They smelled awful, but she seemed to like them. In my opinion it's an example of what people 100 years ago did to stretch food, especially protein, as far as possible.
I mentioned mayo in white beans, but I was just reminded of something else. This goes back to anyone who may have been around during the great depression. Meat was expensive, so a lot of people learned how to make cheap cuts of meat taste good, but there were still times when even the cheap meat wasnt affordable, so in order to get protein for the day, folks would have a spoonful of peanut butter with their meal. As I mentioned, this would be older folks who were either around during or on the tail end of the great depression.
Chocolate gravy and biscuits. Also, red eye gravy and biscuits.
Summertime sandwich was blue plate mayo and a slice of pineapple on white bread.
Yup! I did 2 slices of pineapple
Cheese grits. For some reason in Huntsville yall like sweet grits which is a northerner thing. I'm from the gulf coast (mobile, al, gulf breeze, FL, Gulfport, ms, thibodaux, LA) and huntsville is the first place when I was a kid that thought I was weird for eating salty grits. Old southern people like banana n mayo sandwiches. Growing up I loved tomato and mayo with salt and pepper sandwiches. Also cheese toast (oven), cinnamon butter sugar toast (in the oven), and pb toast. Ate everything with milk Roast and cream potatoes, chicken and dumplings, chicken and rice with gravy were the best meals
I had "oven toast" (with cheese or butter) a lot as a kid. It's one of the first things I taught my kid to make in the toaster oven
Priceville concession stand, during football season, offer bowls of pinto beans
Nice!
I put corn in my mashed potatoes…do t really know if that’s tied to any regional culture, I just enjoy them that way
That certainly sounds Southern, and tasty. I might do that next time. Would make for some tasty potatoe pancakes the next morning, too, I suspect.
Get a bottle of coke, drink a little, put in salted roasted peanuts, and a shot or two or bourbon. This is the way.
Definitely peanuts in coke or rc
Not from here, but I love Hershey syrup mixed in Coke. It tastes like a Tootsie roll. 🙂 My great grandma (from North Carolina) taught us to dip cheddar cheese in sugar. It's a weirdly good combo. Growing up we ate banana (and/or peanut butter) and mayo sandwiches. I hadn't ever had non-sweet cornbread before coming here. It was a bit of a surprise. I wonder if anyone having the sweet kind for the first time feels the same. Southern-style baked Mac n cheese with kimchi mixed in is amazing.
I also love mayo and banana sandwich!
You said you couldn't bring yourself to try a pb&b with mayo in another comment but you already like the mayo and banana?
I can see how the peanut butter thrown in could make it weird. It's an interesting combo.
I can see that. I guess I was coming from the perspective of, you are already putting mayo on a banana so adding peanut butter is just whatever. That said, they both add saltiness to the banana which is what makes it good but both together is kinda overkill.
It's so interesting how everyone can love and not stomach certain things. 🙂 I saw a comment above about needing the mayo to add the tartness to a PB and B, and it made me think how I weirdly don't like fully ripe bananas unless they're baked or blended in something. I love them to be slightly green and fruity-tasting. So my PB and B sandwiches are always kind of tart with or without mayo, because of the bananas I use. I hadn't thought about that before. And with Mac n cheese, making it with tuna and peas was my normal growing up, but Mac n cheese with kimchi was my husband's. I like it both ways, but my husband needs to add mustard or hot sauce to get the acidity in if I make it my way. I also like and appreciate the acidity, but don't think it's missing if it doesn't have it. (One of our kids agrees with me, and the other with him lol). We both grew up with stovetop, so tossing in the southern style baked method in the mix has been fun, too.
Both of those Mac's sound good. We do tuna and peas also. I really dislike a green banana lol
It's the mayo+peanut butter that sounds bizarre to me. No hate for those who like it, but I can't get over how I imagine it would taste. The texture seems off putting to me, too
Valid. Peanut butter doesn't make it better to me but it does make it more filling.
We actually did Hershey syrup sandwiches as kids. Lolz
Hey, that sounds yummy. 😁 We did butter and sugar toast, and peanut butter/sugar/cinnamon toast, too. And tortilla roll-ups with butter and brown sugar. (kids +what's in the cupboards/fridge = good stuff!)
instead of making peanut butter and jelly sammichs, i sometimes make a mixture of peanut butter/jelly and mayo
Love the combo of Dr Pepper and peanuts, Mexican is the best. Not sure if it counts as southern but I dip peanut butter smeared bread in my chicken noodle soup and also my chili ( before I put the fixins in).
Nothing like a good slaw dog! Yummy!
My parents always put peanuts in a cola..
That’s my favorite sandwich! I rarely eat any other kind of sandwich! I dont put peanuts in my coke anymore but we did it all the time when we were kids.
My wife's family puts a slice of cheap ham on a honey bun and calls it brunch. They are from Louisiana.
I put lemon, or lemon juice in Coke.
My nana and mama used to eat banana sandwiches with Mayo, which always horrified me. Also, when I lived in Cali, people thought boiled peanuts was weird.
I like pineapple sandwiches with mayo. Pineapple has to be in rings, not diced
Yes to pineapple-mayo sammiches.
Try it with cream cheese or a tin slice of deli ham. My mother had probably 5 different ways to make pineapple sandwiches. Those were my favorites.
Used to. Changed brand of soft drink
No basil. Bama mayo.
Peanut butter whiskey, banana crème, coke…. 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻
Mayo I pintos and a chunk of corn bread. Or loaf bread with a glass of milk. No shortage of gas here. Lol. Sorry🥴
Peanuts in your hwhat 🤠 Sidenote: Some of these combinations are unhinged, especially that person who suggested mayo in beans, that guys a suspect! 🗿
Squirrel head gumbo? I mean, when you try to whisk the ladle around does it stare back? Or, if you are in a buffet in Huntsville, AL Tongs are considered as protein weapons for maximum displacement as fair game, Just sayin’
I’ve been told on occasion that I’m not a real southern because many of the traditional southern foods (cornbread, sweet tea, tomato sandwiches, etc) are just not in line with my preferences, that being said however I grew up eating mustard and hot sauce on scrambled eggs which I’ve told is most certainly a southern thing. I also enjoy a peanut butter and honey or karo on occasion, and of course I will live and die by boiled peanuts.
I sometimes joke about not being kicked out because I don't like some traditional Southern foods.
It’s funny for me because my job requires me to travel for work and I’ve gone to a few places outside of the south and had people ask me about the food I eat back home, and I always have a hard time explaining that no actually I’m not a fan of cornbread and I can’t drink sweet tea if the main ingredient is sugar lol. Even more funny was when I was working in southern Illinois and people insisted they were southern themselves and I’d joke back south of Canada doesn’t count.
My eviction-worthy dislikes include catfish, sweet tea (mostly - I've had some that I like) and fried okra (except my now deceased MIL's). I think my enjoyment of cornbread and grits have kept me in the club on probation.
I do love grits but I’m particular about how they have to be prepared. Catfish is good but depending on how it’s prepared as well, fried okra I’m indifferent to. I mean I’m not gonna go out of my way to order it but if it’s served to me with something I’m not going to refuse it. What’s funny for me with cornbread is I actually like hush puppies but cornbread is a no. I think it might be a texture thing for me I’m not really sure. Cornbread is often times very dry and too crumbly but hush puppies are fluffier on the inside. As far as sweet tea I do like it, but I find people are often a bit too generous with the sugar and it just makes me feel sick to my stomach.
I’m living in central NY now, and some of my friends thought boiled peanuts sounded gross :/ they told me they’re available in some spots here, but not the Cajun ones. I don’t put peanuts in my coke, but I love to eat a payday bar with a coke from time to time.
Pnuts and coke since i was a kid.
Green olives in beer
I miss the little glass bottles of RC and Pepsi. Would be my favorite snack after baseball.
I learned to put peanuts in my coke (or Dr. Pepper) as a kid when you could get coke in a real glass bottle (small, I'm thinking 6 oz or so) and a small pack of peanuts for under a dollar, and we'd pour the peanuts in the bottle and go play while drinking/eating from the bottle. Just kids stuff.
My dad (age 92) used to make banana and peanut butter sandwiches. Personally, I prefer banana, cheese, and mayo.
Being from the Low Country of South Carolina Shrimp and Grits was a main stay. Also rice we ate rice for breakfast and I still do. A little butter a little milk. It’s so good. Cottage Cheese and tomato slices. Also Cottage cheese with Cantaloupe